Recent Warfare Technologies

[Bearpaw]

Article on Self-Steering Ammunition on link below:

http://www.livescience.com/50648-darpa-self-steering-bullets.html?cmpid=NL_TND_weekly_2015-04-29

 

[a_majoor]

An announcement of a multi use EMP weapon carried by a drone aircraft. Rapidly flying over an area and selectively targeting devices, buildings or antenna could degrade networks without necessarily knocking them out. Degrading a network but leaving a few pathways for information to flow through provides a means of really focusing your listening assets and identifying key targets. This also has implications in knocking out or degrading a 4GW enemy's use of the internet for C3I and PSYOPS or IO campaigns. Groups like ISIS or the Rebel factions in Eastern Ukraine might have a hard time recovering from this sort of treatment layered on top of other means:

http://nextbigfuture.com/2015/05/multi-use-non-nuclear-electromagnetic.html

Multi-use non-nuclear electromagnetic pulse drone is an operational system in US air force

Boeing's "CHAMP," is short for Counter-electronics High-powered Microwave Advanced Missile Project. It is a non-nuclear electromagnetic pulse weapon. CHAMP carries a small generator that emits microwaves to fry electronics with pinpoint accuracy. It targets not nations or cities but individual buildings, blacking out their electronics rather than blowing up physical targets (or people).

In 2012, Boeing representative was able to boast: "We hit every target we wanted to," predicting further that "in the near future, this technology may be used to render an enemy's electronic and data systems useless even before the first troops or aircraft arrive." Three years later, that future has arrived. Air Force Research Laboratory commander Maj. Gen. Tom Masiello says CHAMP is "an operational system already in our tactical air force."

Lockheed Martin builds the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile -- Extended Range (JASSM-ER), which the Air Force intends to use as CHAMP's delivery mechanism. A cruise missile with an estimated range in excess of 600 miles, JASSM-ER will itself be deployable from combat aircraft such as F-15 and F-16 fighter jets, B-1 and B-52 bombers, and the F-35 stealth fighter -- extending CHAMP's reach even further.

To date, Military Embedded Systems notes that the Air Force Research Laboratory has contracted Boeing to build only five CHAMP devices. But the trend in Pentagon acquisitions projects suggests the Air Force could soon be building these weapons en masse. From MALD-J radar-jamming drones to Switchblade kamikaze guided rockets and now CHAMP mini-electromagnetic-pulse weapons, the Air Force seems intent on fighting its next war more or less entirely by remote control.

 

[a_majoor]

While high speed artillery rounds have the advantages listed in the article (potential for AA fire and much more kinetic energy on impact), I think this would also bring conventional tube artillery some advantages as well. I expect that the rounds would have a considerable range andvantage over conventional rounds, giving the guns a much longer reach (reaching out and touching someone ecomes a whole new ball game):

http://nextbigfuture.com/2015/06/mach-3-naval-guns-are-double-speed-of.html

Mach 3 naval guns are double the speed of standard shells and brings some benefits expected from hypersonic railguns

A guided HVP (Hyper Velocity Projectile.) round from a standard Mk 45 deck gun could bring a significant margin of the railguns promised capabilities to the fleet sooner, USNI News understands. The HVPs from a traditional deck gun will be slower than one launched from a railgun — a little over Mach 3 versus Mach 5 — but still more than double the speed of an unguided regular shell from the service’s Mk 45 five-inch gun found on its guided missile cruisers and destroyers, according to information from NAVSEA.

While deck guns are standard through out the fleet, they lack the range precision of the guided missiles found on cruisers and destroyers and have had shrinking utility in high-end warfare.

A high speed guided round from a deck gun could give U.S. ships more options to deal with air and ballistic missile threats while the Navy continues to refine the railgun design.

Unlike standard high-explosive rounds, the speed of the HVPs doesn’t need explosives and relies on the force brought from its speed to destroy targets.

The addition of the HVP to the arsenal could mean instead of sending a Standard Missile to interdict an air threat, a ship could instead fire a much more inexpensive salvo of guided shells from the deck gun to handle an enemy aircraft.

According to NAVSEA, the service is also investigating using HVP in larger guns than the MK 45.

“The round is being designed to be compatible with multiple guns in the U.S. inventory,” read the NAVSEA statement to USNI News.

NAVSEA didn’t specify, but USNI News understands the Navy is looking for alternatives to the $400,000-per-round guided rocket assisted Long Range Land Attack Projectile (LRLAP) fired from the 155mm Advanced Gun System (AGS) of the Zumwalt-class guided missile destroyers (DDG-1000).

A BAE Systems designed railgun will undergo a first round of at-sea testing next year.

 

[a_majoor]

A design for a small, compact engine. If it works and is scalable, it could provide a huge logistics revolution buy reducing the amount of fuel needed in the field (both through thermodynamics, as it is touted as being far more efficient than conventional IC engines, and because lighter engines mean the rest of the vehicle can also be lighter, for even better fuel economy).

http://liquidpiston.com/technology/how-it-works/

and more on NextBigFuture:

http://nextbigfuture.com/2015/06/lightweight-and-quiet-power-to-enable.html

Lightweight and quiet power to enable armored military exoskeletons

General Atomics is looking at a hybrid-electric power unit with a liquid piston engine that fits in the palm of the hand that will run at 10,000 RPMs. A lightweight and quiet power source is the key to the new powered military exoskeletons.

LiquidPiston’s X Engine is a non-Wankel rotary embodiment of the company’s innovative High Efficiency Hybrid Cycle (HEHC). The X Engine has few parts and three combustion events per rotor revolution, resulting in tremendous power density.

LiquidPiston is currently developing and testing the X Mini, a power-dense, low-vibration, quiet, 70 cubic centimeter gasoline powered rotary four-stroke engine prototype. The compact engine (4-pound core) has only two primary moving parts.

The X Mini is based on LiquidPiston’s patented thermodynamic cycle and engine architecture. To date, the X Mini prototype has demonstrated 3.5 horsepower (net indicated) at 10,000 RPM and the ability to run steady state with air-cooling.

When mature, the engine is expected to weigh 3 pounds, produce over 5 horsepower (over 3728 watts) at up to 15,000 RPM, and be over 30 percent smaller and lighter than comparable four-stroke piston engines. The engine can fit in a 6.6” x 6.2” x 5.4” box. The compact, quiet, high-efficiency, low-vibration, multi-fuel capable combustion engines that are scalable from 1 horsepower to over 1000 horsepower. The power density will be about 2 horsepower per pound.

The X Mini prototype demonstrates that LiquidPiston’s innovative engine technology can scale down in size – prior prototypes focused on 40 and 70 HP designs – and is multi-fuel capable – able to run on gasoline (spark ignition), in addition to previously demonstrated diesel and JP-8 (compression ignition).

The X Mini will enable many small engine applications to be smaller, lighter, and quieter, including hand-held power equipment, lawn and garden equipment, portable generators, mopeds, unmanned aerial vehicles, robotics, marine power, range extenders, and auxiliary power units for boats, aviation and other vehicles. The engine’s improved noise, vibration and harshness (NVH) characteristics will also increase product performance, enhance operator comfort and prolong application life.

* engine runs the novel high-efficiency hybrid cycle (HEHC)
* achieves combustion at constant volume and overexpansion for greater energy extraction.
* Only two moving parts, a rotor and shaft, and no poppet valves—commonly used in other four-stroke ICEs to control fuel intake
* engine also has reduced noise, vibration, and harshness characteristics
* theoretical efficiency of 75 percent for HEHC using air-standard assumptions and first-law analysis
* up to 2 HP per pound (3.3 KW / kg)
* innovative rotary engine architecture shows a potential indicated efficiency of 60% and brake efficiency of over 50%.

In an exoskeleton the engines would only be run to recharge batteries.

 

[a_majoor]

This is literally mind blowing. Inserting billions of nanoparticles in the brain to allow for external stimulation, or the generate electromagnetic fields to allow direct mind/computer interfaceing:

http://nextbigfuture.com/2015/06/20-billion-nanoparticles-electrically.html

20 billion nanoparticles electrically stimulate mice brains with the goals of imaging brain activity, precisely target medical treatments and enabling better brain computer interfaces

Sakhrat Khizroev of Florida International University in Miami and his team inserted 20 billion of these nanoparticles into the brains of mice. They then switched on a magnetic field, aiming it at the clump of nanoparticles to induce an electric field. An electroencephalogram showed that the region surrounded by nanoparticles lit up, stimulated by this electric field that had been generated.

Khizroev's goal is to build a system that can both image brain activity and precisely target medical treatments at the same time. Since the nanoparticles respond differently to different frequencies of magnetic field, they can be tuned to release drugs.

Although beyond the scope of current research, Khizroev's nanoparticle system may offer a new way to interact with computers. He hasn't tried it yet, but he says running it in reverse, so that the nanoparticles produce a measurable magnetic field in response to the brain's own electrical fields, is possible. Our brain states would then become input parameters for computers, which would be able to directly stimulate specific regions of the brain in return.

Journal of Future medicine - Magnetoelectric ‘spin’ on stimulating the brain

An in vivo study on imprinting control region mice aims to show that magnetoelectric nanoparticles may directly couple the intrinsic neural activity-induced electric fields with external magnetic fields.

Materials and methods: Approximately 10 µg of CoFe2O4–BaTiO3 30-nm nanoparticles have been intravenously administrated through a tail vein and forced to cross the blood–brain barrier via a d.c. field gradient of 3000 Oe/cm. A surgically attached two-channel electroencephalography headmount has directly measured the modulation of intrinsic electric waveforms by an external a.c. 100-Oe magnetic field in a frequency range of 0–20 Hz.

Results: The modulated signal has reached the strength comparable to that due the regular neural activity.

Conclusion: The study opens a pathway to use multifunctional nanoparticles to control intrinsic fields deep in the brain.

 

[a_majoor]

Considering that every desk in the CF has a desktop, we could tap into something like this to make our own "cloud" supercomputer(s) for various taskings. Certainly cyberwarfare (both offensive and defensive) would be enhanced with supercomputer power to do things like crypto, analysing "big data" patterns of network usage and other tasks, for a very simple example:

http://nextbigfuture.com/2015/06/startup-sentent-can-link-one-million.html#more

Startup Sentent can link one million processors from excess data center capacity for deep learning artificial intelligence

A private company called Sentient with only about 70 employees, says it can cheaply assemble even larger computing systems to power artificial-intelligence software.

Sentient’s power comes from linking up hundreds of thousands of computers over the Internet to work together as if they were a single machine. The company won’t say exactly where all the machines it taps into are. But many are idle inside data centers, the warehouse-like facilities that power Internet services such as websites and mobile apps, says Babak Hodjat, cofounder and chief scientist at Sentient. The company pays a data-center operator to make use of its spare machines.

Data centers often have significant numbers of idle machines because they are built to handle surges in demand, such as a rush of sales on Black Friday. Sentient has created software that connects machines in different places over the Internet and puts them to work running machine-learning software as if they were one very powerful computer. That software is designed to keep data encrypted as much as possible so that what Sentient is working on–perhaps for a client–is kept confidential.

Sentient can get up to one million processor cores working together on the same problem for months at a time, says Adam Beberg, principal architect for distributed computing at the company. Google’s biggest machine-learning systems don’t reach that scale, he says.

Sentient was founded in 2007 and has received over $140 million in investment funding, with just over $100 million of that received late last year. The company has so far focused on using its technology to power a machine-learning technique known as evolutionary algorithms. That involves “breeding” a solution to a problem from an initial population of many slightly different algorithms. The best performers of the first generation are used to form the basis of the next, and over successive generations the solutions get better and better.

Sentient currently earns some revenue from operating financial-trading algorithms created by running its evolutionary process for months at a time on hundreds of thousands of processors. But the company now plans to use its infrastructure to offer services targeted at industries such as health care or online commerce, says Hodjat. Companies in those industries would theoretically pay Sentient for those products.

An interview with Babak Hodjat, Co-founder, Chief Scientist and Nigel Duffy, Chief Technology Officer.

Q. What is new about Sentient’s approach to scaling its AI?
A (Principal Architect, Distributed Computing, Adam Beberg). If you ask a cloud provider for a million cores, they will laugh, then respond with a date a few years from now when those cores might be available. What we’re doing is harvesting idle cycles wherever they are, to solve problems with AI at a scale unheard of in the industry. AI is a new frontier and the problems we’re solving to make a system like this work are really difficult to solve. We’re having to rethink and re-imagine how distributed systems work from the ground up to enable the AI and that’s a fun problem to solve.

Q. How big is Sentient’s system and to how many cores can it scale to?
A. We’re designing the next version of our system to scale over millions of cores coordinated across different geographic regions, for months at a time. It’s also designed to handle general computation, not just the types of work needed for the AI.

Q. What types of challenges did Sentient have building this system and how were they overcome?
A. The biggest technical challenges are optimizing data movement across different geographic locations, security and data privacy issues, and making the entire system operate in the most efficient way possible by moving the computation to the data. These are problems that don’t exist when running at a cloud provider or a dedicated data center, but solving them allows us to work at unprecedented scale.

 

[a_majoor]

NextBigFuture on cheap, massively networked drone and UAV's being the next transformation in US military thinking and doctrine ("New Look" use of nuclear weapons being the first, AirLand Battle and related thinking being the second and this being the "third offset"). Since this is very technocentric, by itself it is an incomplete solution and certainly is no help against programs like "Hybrid Warfare" (Russian), "Unrestricted Warfare" (Chinese) or even the American formulation of 4GW (generally applied to sophisticated modern insurgencies like ISIS). If this could be successfully allied to sophisticated doctrines like Hybrid Warfare, Unrestricted Warfare or 4GW as the kinetic arm, then the US would have a supple and flexible means to deal with opponents in any place and at any scale.

http://nextbigfuture.com/2015/06/usa-revamping-military-to-re-establish.html

USA Revamping military to re-establish superiority gap over China and Russia with a lot of drones and missiles

The military playing field is more even than it has been for many years.

The US effort to pull away from military peers is what Secretary of Defence Hagel calls the “third offset strategy”, because it is the third time since the second world war that America has sought technological breakthroughs to offset the advantages of potential foes and reassure its friends.

1. In the early 1950s, when the Soviet Union was fielding far larger conventional forces in Europe than America and its allies could hope to repel. The answer was to extend America’s lead in nuclear weapons to counter the Soviet numerical advantage—a strategy known as the “New Look”.

2. In the mid-1970s. American military planners, reeling from the psychological defeat of the Vietnam war, recognised that the Soviet Union had managed to build an equally terrifying nuclear arsenal. They had to find another way to restore credible deterrence in Europe. Daringly, America responded by investing in a family of untried technologies aimed at destroying enemy forces well behind the front line. Precision-guided missiles, the networked battlefield, reconnaissance satellites, the Global Positioning System (GPS) and radar-beating “stealth” aircraft were among the fruits of that research.

3. Colossal computational power, rapid data processing, sophisticated sensors and bandwidth—some of the components of the second offset—are all now widely available. China and Russia are using a lot of cheap missiles.

China has an arsenal of precision short- to medium-range ballistic and cruise missiles, submarines equipped with wake-homing torpedoes and long-range anti-ship missiles, electronic warfare, anti-satellite weapons, modern fighter jets, integrated air defences and sophisticated command, control and communications systems.

The US military now has five critical vulnerabilities.
* carriers and other surface vessels can now be tracked and hit by missiles at ranges from the enemy’s shore which could prevent the use of their cruise missiles or their tactical aircraft without in-flight refuelling by lumbering tankers that can be picked off by hostile fighters.
* defending close-in regional air bases from a surprise attack in the opening stages of a conflict is increasingly hard.
* aircraft operating at the limits of their combat range would struggle to identify and target mobile missile launchers.
* modern air defences can shoot down non-stealthy aircraft at long distances.
* the satellites America requires for surveillance and intelligence are no longer safe from attack.

The USA is looking to put missiles and counter missiles on every ship in the Navy.

DARPA is developing mid-range drones that can be placed on every ship.

The goal of the DARPA Tern project is to give forward-deployed small ships the ability to serve as mobile launch and recovery sites for medium-altitude, long-endurance unmanned aerial systems (UAS). These systems could provide long-range intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) and other capabilities over greater distances and time periods than is possible with current assets, including manned and unmanned helicopters. Further, a capacity to launch and retrieve aircraft on small ships would reduce the need for ground-based airstrips, which require significant dedicated infrastructure and resources. The two prime contractors selected by DARPA are AeroVironment, Inc., and Northrop Grumman Corp.

Tern, a joint program between DARPA and the U.S. Navy’s Office of Naval Research (ONR), seeks to enable forward-deployed small ships to serve as mobile launch and recovery sites for medium-altitude, long-endurance unmanned aerial systems (UAS). In an important step toward that goal, DARPA has awarded prime contracts for Phase 2 of Tern to two companies: AeroVironment, Inc. and Northrop Grumman Corp.

“To offer the equivalent of land-based UAS capabilities from small-deck ships, our Phase 2 performers are each designing a new unmanned air system intended to enable two previously unavailable capabilities: one, the ability for a UAS to take off and land from very confined spaces in elevated sea states and two, the ability for such a UAS to transition to efficient long-duration cruise missions,” said Dan Patt, DARPA program manager. “Tern’s goal is to develop breakthrough technologies that the Navy could realistically integrate into the future fleet and make it much easier, quicker and less expensive for the Defense Department to deploy persistent ISR and strike capabilities almost anywhere in the world.”

The first two phases of the Tern program focus on preliminary design and risk reduction. In Phase 3, one performer will be selected to build a full-scale demonstrator Tern system for initial ground-based testing. That testing would lead to a full-scale, at-sea demonstration of a prototype UAS on an at-sea platform with deck size similar to that of a destroyer or other surface combat vessel.

It might cost about $22 million per ship to outfit it drone capability.

B52s and C130s would become drone carriers

DARPA wants to enable existing large aircraft to carry, launch and recover multiple unmanned air systems for a variety of missions.

Military air operations typically rely on large, manned, robust aircraft, but such missions put these expensive assets—and their pilots—at risk. While small unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) can reduce or eliminate such risks, they lack the speed, range and endurance of larger aircraft. These complementary traits suggest potential benefits in a blended approach—one in which larger aircraft would carry, launch and recover multiple small UAS. Such an approach could greatly extend the range of UAS operations, enhance overall safety, and cost-effectively enable groundbreaking capabilities for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) and other missions.

DARPA wants to explore the feasibility and potential value of an ability to launch and recover multiple small unmanned air systems from one or more types of existing large manned aircraft, such as C-130 transport planes.


DARPA is interested in proving the feasibility and potential value of the ability to launch and recover multiple small unmanned air systems from one or more types of existing large manned aircraft. The agency has issued a Request for Information (RFI) seeking technical, security and business insights to support the agency’s pursuit of future distributed airborne capabilities.

DARPA program manager. “We envision innovative launch and recovery concepts for new UAS designs that would couple with recent advances in small payload design and collaborative technologies.”

To get its hands on the technologies it needs, the military establishment and the armed forces themselves may have to take an axe to cherished programmes. One possibility would be to scale back plans to buy nearly 2,500 F-35 fighter jets, which have too short a range for many situations, and use the money to buy unmanned combat aircraft and a bigger fleet of long-range strike bombers. The navy might have to give up on two of its fabulously expensive carrier groups in recognition of their growing vulnerability in favor of investments in submarines, both manned and unmanned

These efforts would be an attempt by the USA to match affordability with the cheaper swarming attack of missiles and drones that China and Russia will deploy. This would be combined with the advanced military technology edge that the USA will still maintain for a few more decades.

And a roundup of recent posts here shows that a lot of what is needed to impliment these ideas is already out there, the power comes from the synergy between the various ideas rather than from any one in particular:

Duplex radio capability: http://army.ca/forums/threads/91633/post-1340127.html#msg1340127

Squad level robotics:
http://army.ca/forums/threads/91633/post-1353227.html#msg1353227

Wide area Internet coverage
http://army.ca/forums/threads/91633/post-1356441.html#msg1356441

Swarming Drones
http://army.ca/forums/threads/91633/post-1364168.html#msg1364168

EMP drone weapon
http://army.ca/forums/threads/91633/post-1368763.html#msg1368763

Compact engines
http://army.ca/forums/threads/91633/post-1370878.html#msg1370878

Formation of mass cloud supercomputers
http://army.ca/forums/threads/91633/post-1371725.html#msg1371725

 

[a_majoor]

Massive networking and drone technology has the potential to change things at sea as well:

http://nextbigfuture.com/2015/06/game-changers-for-submarine-warfare.html

Game Changers for submarine warfare : undersea sensor networks, 70 day UUVs and 200 mile range torpedos

Undersea research and development has been a distinct U.S. military advantage since the end of WWII, but commercial and scientific interest in offshore resources is prompting a rapid expansion and diffusion of undersea study and expertise. American undersea forces will likely become more vulnerable to inadvertent detection by civilian and foreign entities, while rival military and non-state forces could more easily access and incorporate new technologies in their undersea sensors, unmanned vehicles, and weapons.

Today, many American leaders assume quiet U.S. submarines can access almost any ocean area, even those defended by enemy A2/AD systems. New ASW (anti-submarine warfare) technologies and improvements to non-nuclear undersea platforms, however, will likely enable adversaries to complement their surface and air A2/AD networks with undersea surveillance and attack systems. These may not have the reach of anti-ship ballistic missiles or modern surface-to-air missiles, but they have the potential to make the undersea littorals of a potential adversary an increasingly denied zone. Consequently, unless U.S. forces adapt to and lead the new competition, the era of unrivalled U.S. undersea dominance could draw to a surprisingly abrupt close.

* new undersea “battle networks.” New long-range sensors, such as LF active sonar or wake detection, and emerging undersea communication capabilities will enable the development of new undersea fire control networks analogous to those using radio signals in above-the-surface warfare. For example, long-range ASW weapons such as a missile with a CVLWT warhead could be networked with long-range sensors to create an effective standoff ASW capability that delays or drives off submarines by exploiting their inherent limitations in speed, situational awareness, and self-defense.

* Disruptive technological shifts. With computer processing power continuing to rapidly increase and become more portable, dramatic breakthroughs are imminent in undersea sensing, communications, and networking. Advancements are also underway in power generation and storage that could yield significant increases in the endurance, speed, and capability of unmanned vehicles and systems. These improvements would compel a comprehensive reevaluation of long-held assumptions about the operational and tactical employment of undersea capabilities, as well as the future design of undersea systems.


The ability of large UUVs and submarines to conduct and coordinate operations will improve with the introduction of new weapon, sensor, and communication systems. For example, the U.S. Navy is fielding the Common Very Lightweight Torpedo (CVLWT), which is less than a third the size of the smallest torpedo currently operated by the fleet. Although the CVLWT has a short range, large UUVs could carry substantial numbers of them as offensive weapons and exploit the UUV’s quietness to position the torpedoes close to a target. CVLWTs could also be employed as active defense weapons by submarines. Similarly, small, unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) such as the Navy’s Experimental Fuel Cell (XFC) UAV have relatively short endurance but can be launched by submarines or UUVs close to an adversary’s coast. They can exploit the ongoing miniaturization in electro-optical, infrared, and radar sensors to conduct surveillance or electronic warfare missions, providing targeting information directly via line-of-sight to a submarine or strike aircraft in the vicinity. Such systems could even carry warheads and be used as loitering, anti-radiation homing weapons to attack enemy air defense radars.

Clark urges the sub force to construct larger nuclear-powered mothership attack boats (SSNs) with the capacity to handle UUVs in significant numbers, not to mention new self-defense weaponry like ultralightweight torpedoes.

US Naval Research Large Displacement Unmanned Underwater Vehicle

The Office of Naval Research’s Large Displacement Unmanned Underwater Vehicle Innovative Naval Prototype (LDUUV INP) program will develop a large unmanned submersible able to conduct missions longer than 70 days in open ocean and littoral seas. LDUUV will be launched from a pier or a variety of platforms, including the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS). The craft's missions will include ISR, acoustic surveillance, Anti-submarine Warfare, mine counter-measures, and offensive operations.

The vehicle's manufacturing and development phase will begin in 2015 with testing planned for 2018. According to the Navy's ISR Capabilities Division, LDUUV will reach initial operating capability as a squadron by 2020 and full rate production by 2025.


In July 2012, ONR awarded FuelCell Energy, Inc. an 18 month $3.8-million Phase I contract to develop and test an 1,800 kWh Hybrid Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC)-Battery power system. The SOFC fuel cell technology was developed by Versa Power Systems, a company partially owned by FuelCell Energy.

On 20 July 2012, Hamilton Sundstrand was awarded an $18 million contract to develop an energy-dense air independent power system for the program.

New Weapons that are also undersea game changers

Today’s torpedo have an effective range of 10 miles. A group has delivered a 200-mile propulsion system for torpedos.

A second development effort is to take the Tomahawk Land Attack Missile (TLAM) and create a “multi-mission weapon” capable of striking land or at-sea targets. The importance is twofold, Connor said. First, submarines do not know what fight they may encounter when they deploy, and having a multi-mission weapon would create efficiencies and a boat better prepared for whatever situation arises.

 

[a_majoor]

And now tin foil hats have become a real need for military forces (or at least pretty solid Faraday cages for electronic equipment):

http://nextbigfuture.com/2015/06/usa-and-russia-are-integrating-more.html

USA and Russia are integrating more multi-use non-nuclear EMP weapons and China is trying to catch up

Multi-use EMP weapons are being added as a standard military weapon by the USA and Russia.

Russia has developed super-high-frequency gun capable of deactivating unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) and the warheads of precision weapons at an impact range of ten kilometers (6 miles) which ensures 360 degrees of perimeter defense.

Russia’s United Instrument Manufacturing Corporation (UIMC), part of Rostec Corporation, has announced that it developed a super-high-frequency gun for BUK missile systems.

Defence manufacturer UIMC, part of the state-owned Rostec Corporation, announced that it would be demonstrating the power of the weapon at the Army-2015 conference attended by Vladimir Putin on Tuesday.

“The new system is equipped with a high-power relativistic generator and reflector antenna, management and control system, and a transmission system which is fixed on the chassis of BUK surface-to-air missile systems. When mounted on a special platform, the ‘microwave gun’ is capable of ensuring perimeter defense at 360 degrees,” the representative said.

The system is capable of out-of-band suppression of the radio electronic equipment of low-altitude aircraft and the assault elements of precision weapons. The gun is able to deactivate the equipment of aircraft and UAVs, and neutralize precision weapons.

Russia's EMP ground vehicle

The Air Force Research Laboratory has been working with Boeing for several years on the perfection, miniaturization and deployment of its Counter-electronics High-powered Advanced Missile Project (CHAMP), which has already been in the arsenal, but which will become increasingly central to the armed forces.

The technology is mature and will be miniaturized for the JASSM-ER.

CHAMP is “an operational system already in our tactical air force, and that is really what will make us more operationally relevant.

The US has EMP on drones, bombs and missiles.

The multi-use non-nuclear electromagnetic pulse drones are an operational system in US air force

China achieved a technological breakthrough (early in 2015) that could help introduce pulse weapons to the People's Liberation Army's arsenal, reported the Global Times, a tabloid under the auspices of the Communist Party mouthpiece People's Daily.

According to the report, the Xian Institute of Optics and Precision Mechanics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has successfully developed a third-generation X-ray pulsar simulation source. The technology, which can create an X-ray pulsar source in X-ray tubes to generate arbitrary waveform pulses, officially passed evaluation tests on Jan. 17.

The evaluation committee found that the creation's performance indicators were at an advanced international level and concluded that it is an advanced technology with original and practical applications that could lead to important economic and social benefits.

An X-ray pulsar consists of a magnetized neutron star in orbit with a normal stellar companion and is a type of binary star system. They are a class of astronomical objects that are X-ray sources displaying strict periodic variations in X-ray intensity with ranges that can vary from microseconds to several minutes.

Traditional non-nuclear EMPs weapons produce a short burst of electromagnetic energy to disrupt or damage electronic equipment. Nuclear EMP weapons, which have been dubbed "the second atomic bomb," have a much wider range of impact as they produce an abrupt pulse of electromagnetic radiation resulting from a nuclear explosion. The electromagnetic pulse from non-nuclear EMP weapons come from within the weapon, while nuclear weapons generate EMP as a secondary effect. In terms of military applications, a nuclear EMP would be delivered via a nuclear warhead detonated hundreds of kilometers above the Earth's surface.

EMP weapons have begun to find more practical applications in top militaries around the world. During the 1991 Gulf War, the US carried and used EMP weapons on its E-8 Joint Stars aircraft to disrupt electronic command systems, which international analysts believe was one of the main advantages the US had over its enemy. In July 1992, high-powered microwave weapons were named as one of six key future arms technologies by the US Congress, with the US Navy, Army and Air Force each putting forth a high-powered microwave weapons development plan.

In March 1999, the US used microwave weapons during the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, causing communication in certain areas to be disrupted for more than three hours. EMP weapons were then used to sever Iraqi state television broadcast signals in March 2003 during the Iraq War.

Apart from the US and Russia, countries developing high-powered microwave weapons include England, France, Germany and Japan.

 

[a_majoor]

US Marines are experimenting with a portable laser system. Although it is about as portable as a C-16, this could be mounted on light vehicles for use against things like UAV's:

http://nextbigfuture.com/2015/07/on-way-to-personal-ray-guns-650-pound.html

On the way to personal ray guns, a 650 pound squad level ten kilowatt combat laser

Boeing's new Compact Laser Weapon System (LWS) breaks down into four parts, each transportable by one or two Marines. Boeing says these components include:

* a battery
* a water-cooled chiller
* a commercially available fiber laser
* an upgraded beam director, weighing 40% less than a previous model.

In total, the system weighs about 650 pounds and would probably be operated by a squad of eight to 12 soldiers or Marines.

Able to be assembled in just 15 minutes, LWS is capable of generating an energy beam of up to 10 kilowatts that can, depending on the power level, be used to acquire, track, and identify a target -- or even destroy it -- at ranges of at least 22 miles. The weapon is designed specifically to track and attack moving aerial targets such as incoming artillery rounds, and low-flying aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles.
 
Within five years the energy density of the batteries could be doubled and the other components should also be further reduced in size to get the system down to 200-300 pounds.

With 10 kilowatt lasers in that size range, 200-300 kilowatt lasers could fit into the truck sized systems.

The Navy systems should be at the megawatt level.

 

[a_majoor]

NFB rounds up several developments (I omitted the last two parts since they are repeats of previous articles/posts). The squad support robot and using robotic helicopters has been successfully field tested in Afghanistan, and interestingly there was also a synergistic test (the robot helicopter flew the robot vehicle to waiting forces). The idea seems sound, and such support would seem to allow smaller formations to have integral support on the front line (with the understanding that there will be a certain amount of "tail" needed to maintain and program these beasts). Light units, in particular, would benefit since their fatal weakness is the inability to carry enough weapons and stores to carry out prolonged missions (and if your air transport is denied for any reason at all, weather, enemy activity, poor staff planing, then you will indeed be on a "prolonged" mission).

Mechanized mules to carry weapons like mortars and HMG's or ATGM's seem to be a logical next step, and robotic helicopter gunships are also likely on the horizon as well. Some interesting pictures and video on the link:

http://nextbigfuture.com/2015/07/squad-level-large-wheeled-robot-robot.html

July 11, 2015
Squad level large wheeled robot, robot helicopter bot and combat lasers

A squad level mission support ground transport robot has been operated in Afghanistan and has been tested for several years. Squad Mission Support System is an unmanned all terrain wheeled vehicle developed by Lockheed Martin.

The SMSS Block 1 went to Afghanistan for a military utility assessment in late 2011. The Block 1 version has a lighter frame, infrared driving lights, a smaller and more efficient sensor package, and insulated exhaust and hydraulics that make them quieter in the field. It is heavier at 3,800 pounds unloaded, but can carry a larger 1,200 pound payload, and has a 125 mile operating range. The SMSS can operate autonomously, be programmed to "follow the leader," be tele-operated, or controlled manually by getting on the vehicle and using a joystick to steer. The vehicle has a litter carrying kit for casualty evacuation.

Four vehicles were deployed to Afghanistan. They were used to resupply small combat outposts and strongpoints, and construction projects on its larger forward operating base. One unit used the SMSS to carry 10,000 pounds of supplies over the course of two days to a small combat outpost two kilometers away, regularly carrying 2,000-pound loads. One time, soldiers loaded one vehicle up with 100 sandbags, which was estimated to weigh 4,000 pounds (exceeding Lockheed’s recommended carrying weight of 1,200 pounds), and succussfully drove it up a 30-degree slope. While initially planned as a squad-level asset, it is being used more at the platoon level. From fielding experiences, Lockheed is planning improvements to the system. They are considering adding another alternator to increase its power output, since one group of soldiers in Afghanistan had been trying to use it as a mobile operations center by loading it up with generators and batteries while out on missions. Lockheed is also considering adding a manipulator arm so it can load unload cargo itself.

On 7 August 2014, the SMSS was used in an exercise at Fort Benning to combine the abilities of both an unmanned ground vehicle and unmanned aerial vehicle. It involved the SMSS and an unmanned K-MAX helicopter, both Lockheed Martin systems, operating in a simulated area deemed too risky for human presence. The K-MAX autonomously transported the SMSS by sling load into the area and set it down over an intended point, releasing it upon command from a remote operator. The K-MAX returned to base, then the SMSS used autonomous operation and limited tele-operation from a remote site to move around the area. Once deployed, the vehicle used a mast-mounted Gyrocam electro-optical sensor and satellite communications (SATCOM) terminal with a datalink for area surveillance. The exercise was intended to demonstrate that large UAVs and UGVs could operate alongside each other by themselves and beyond line-of-sight to perform missions to keep personnel out of harm's way

The Kaman K-MAX (Company designation K-1200) is an American helicopter with intermeshing rotors (synchropter) built by Kaman Aircraft. It is optimized for external cargo load operations, and is able to lift a payload of over 6,000 pounds (2,722 kg), which is more than the helicopter's empty weight. A remote controlled unmanned aerial vehicle version is being developed and is being evaluated in extended practical service in the war in Afghanistan.

Edit to clarify what was flying what...sigh

 

[GnyHwy]

If the first pic flies then I will be really impressed.

 

[a_majoor]

Airless tires becoming closer to reality. They are already in limited use, but this brings them to the state where they could be installed in light duty vehicles:

http://spectrum.ieee.org/cars-that-think/transportation/advanced-cars/airless-tires-roll-towards-consumer-vehicles

Airless Tires Roll Towards Consumer Vehicles
By Evan Ackerman
Posted 17 Jul 2015 | 20:00 GMT

Air-filled (pneumatic) tires give our vehicles comfortable, cushiony rides. (Thanks tires, we appreciate that.) Looking at it from another perspective, pneumatic tires are containers of pressurized gas that are being subjected to constant abuse, and when something happens to them, it can result in a situation that falls somewhere between a minor annoyance and a deadly catastrophe. We’ve ridden on these things for about 130 years now, and while they’ve improved substantially since John Dunlop invented them to keep his kid from getting headaches while riding his bike, it seems that we can still do better. Hankook is trying to make better happen with a consumer-oriented airless tire.

Instead of pressurized air as a shock absorber that can also support the weight of the vehicle, airless tires (also called non-pneumatic tires, or NPTs) use deformable solid materials (usually rubber) to achieve the same effects. Here’s a concept video from a couple of years back:

There are already airless tires in production: Michelin sells the Tweel for agricultural vehicles, and Polaris has been offering an ATV with NPTs since late 2013. What’s new is Hankook’s announcement that it has been aggressivley testing its NPT for applications that require more than low-speed ruggedness. Among them is the passenger vehicle. The series of “rigorous tests” that the company is putting its tires through are meant to prove their durability, hardness (efficiency), stability, ability to take high-speed turns (slalom), and ability to maintain their integrity at high speeds (up to 130 kilometers per hour). Hankook says that “the impressive results in all five categories demonstrated that the NPTs could match conventional tires in terms of performance.”

That’s all good stuff, but what’s especially promising is that Hankook has been able to vastly improve the efficiency of its manfacturing process, reducing the number of steps to four from eight. The NPTs are recyclable, too. None of this is any guarantee that Hankook will be releasing a consumer product any time soon; it’s going to take a lot of safety testing before this new type of tire is allowed on the road. But durability and performance testing and a focus on manufacturability likely means that these tires are (finally) treading beyond the prototype stage.

 

[CougarKing]

Speaking of carriers as floating drone factories...

Reuters

3D printed drone launched from warship
Wed Aug 19, 2015 8:10am EDT

By Matthew Stock

A team of engineers from the University of Southampton launched a 3D printed unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) from the bow of a Royal Navy warship in a bid to demonstrate the potential use of lightweight drones at sea.

After being launched from HMS Mersey off the Dorset coast in the south of England, the UAV was flown autonomously on a pre-programmed route for a few before landing on Chesil Beach.

Known as the Southampton University Laser Sintered Aircraft (SULSA), the drone weighed 3kg with a wing-span of nearly 1.5 meters. The airframe was created on a 3D printer using laser sintered nylon, which uses a laser to fuse nylon powder into solid structures. It's printed in four major parts and can be assembled without the use of any tools.

After being catapulted from the bow of the warship, it flew roughly 500 meters around the tidal lagoon of Wyke Regis Training Facility in Weymouth before coming into land.

(...SNIPPED)

 

[a_majoor]

More on unpowered exoskeletons. While this isn't as exciting as the powered battle armour of Robert A Heinlein's "Starship Troopers", it is certainly much more practical since it dispenses with batteries, fuel cells or other power sources. A soldier could either carry the current load much farther without extra expenditure of energy, or actually man pack things like a C-16 or 81mm mortar.:

http://nextbigfuture.com/2015/08/passive-exoskeletons-transfer-two.html

Passive Exoskeletons transfer two-thirds of weight to the ground

Australian researchers have developed a simple, lightweight (3 kg) fully-passive exoskeleton. This system uses Bowden cables to attached to a rigid backpack frame. The cables run down the back and legs to the base of the boot and transfer approximately two thirds of the backpack load to the ground
. This load force bypasses the user’s body, reducing compression forces from the backpack load through the torso and legs.

The benefits of such a system compared to a powered exoskeleton include: simplicity, no requirements for heavy batteries; low cost; easier to integrate with the user and equipment and redundancy when no longer required – remove and add to pack.

The development is at a proof-of-concept stage with early testing showing encouraging results. However, the biomechanics of the system require extensive refinement to ensure it is integrated optimally with the soldier and truly fit for purpose.

While the technology is being developed around use in the military it might be applicable to many civilian scenarios such as firefighting, trekking and personal load carriage roles that require assistive technology.

Passive Exoskeleton

Carnegie Mellon and North Carolina State researchers helps individuals walk using less energy with an unpowered exoskeleton

The US unpowered ankle exoskeleton that reduces the metabolic cost of walking by approximately 7 percent. The results are roughly the equivalent of taking off a 10-pound backpack, and are equivalent to savings from exoskeletons that use electrically-powered devices.

Walking with a passive-elastic ankle exoskeleton. An unpowered clutch engages a spring in parallel with the Achilles tendon when the foot is on the ground, offloading the calf muscles and making walking easier. Credit: Stephen Thrift, North Carolina State University

 

[a_majoor]

The IDF has deployed a series of robotic combat vehicles, and is in the process of developing more for situations like tunnel warfare.

http://nextbigfuture.com/2015/09/armed-robotic-ground-vehicles.html

Armed Robotic ground vehicles patrolling Israeli borders

Israel has unmanned ground vehicles that can carry remote-controled weapons and sensors for surveillance missions for patroling the Gazan border.

The Tomcar-based Guardium, produced by Israeli defense company G-NIUS Autonomous Unmanned Ground Vehicles, has spent the past six years patrolling the Gaza border, carrying out reconnaissance missions. This year, it will be replaced by a UGV called Border Patroller, which will soon enter operations.

The new UGV, also produced by G-NIUS (a joint venture company established by Israel Aerospace Industries and Elbit Systems), is based on the Ford F-350 Super Duty Truck, which the army has converted into a remote-controled vehicle.

At the start of 2015, there were eight to ten robotic vehicles patrolling Israel's borders.


THE BORDER PATROLLER vehicle can be armed with a remotecontroled weapon and reconnaissance means. . (photo credit:G-NIUS)

Guardium MK III - Fully-autonomous unmanned ground vehicle for complex combat missions

Geared for use in complex combat missions, the Guardium MK III, Unmanned Ground Combat Vehicle™ (UGCV) is fully autonomous, featuring excellent reconnaissance and weapons operation capabilities, as well as superb maneuverability in even the harshest warfare conditions. , The Guardium MK III creates deterrence by rapid closure of the sensor-to-shooter loop, identifies and classifies hostile activity, gives advance warning to military forces, and provides a threat response all without endangering personnel. The Guardium MK III is part of the G-NIUS Unmanned Ground Systems suite of unmanned ground vehicles for defense and security applications.

* weight 3000 kg
* 2000 kg payload
* Up to 120 kph (in semi autonomous mode)

Avantguard MK II

Already trialed and certified by the Israeli army and relying on the technological strength and capabilities of the Guardium UGV™ system, the AvantGuard® Unmanned Ground Combat Vehicle (UGCV) expands the applications envelop to further encompass ground maneuvering combat missions.

Based on varied of tracked platforms such as tactical amphibious ground support (TAGS) vehicle, APC and others, the AvantGuard® UGCV features superb maneuverability even in harsh terrain

In the coming years, the Ground Forces Command plans to complete the development of a robot that will serve infantry and combat engineering units engaged in tunnel warfare.

The robot will patrol underground and gather information for units on the surface, allowing soldiers to avoid entering terrorist tunnels, which are often booby-trapped death traps, where enemy gunmen more familiar with the surroundings can lie in wait. The poor visibility and air quality in the tunnels create additional challenges for soldiers.

“A robot can be risked, and it doesn’t have to deal with a lack of lighting. It doesn’t have to breathe, and it won’t have to worry about getting shot,” said Tarbelsi.

The robots will map out tunnels and buildings, enabling combat soldiers to gain an accurate picture of a battle arena before entering it.

The Ground Forces Command and the G-NIUS company are also developing a robot called Loyal Partner, which will be armed with remote-controled weapons and be able to maneuver in terrain, serving as an advance guard for combat soldiers. It could be deployed into areas filled with hidden explosives and shooting ambushes.

GUARDIUM-MK II

Relieving the extreme weight load on the dismounted soldier, the Guardium MK II™, a versatile – multi purpose autonomous unmanned round vehicle, replenishes forward troops with up to 300 kg of ammunition and supplies without endangering manned vehicles over IEDs stricken routes.

An offspring of the operational Guardium UGV™, he Guardium MK II™ equips the warfighter with robust toolkit for a variety of operational scenarios as route proving, base protection, ISTAR and combat logistic support.

Height: 2.2m/7.2ft/86in
Width: 1.8m/5.9ft/70in
Length: 3.42m/11.2ft/134.5in
Weight: 1,200 kg
Payload: 300 kg
Max speed: 50 km/h (in semi-autonomous mode)
Endurance: 24 hours and up to days of continuous operation
Power Plant: Heavy and standard fuels’ engines are available

Avantguard MK-1

 

[a_majoor]

The joy of simple technologies like kites:

http://nextbigfuture.com/2015/10/darpa-parafoil-system-provides.html

DARPA parafoil system provides the equivalent of a mast as tall as a skyscraper

DARPA’s Towed Airborne Lift of Naval Systems (TALONS) research effort recently demonstrated a prototype of a low-cost, fully automated parafoil system designed to extend maritime vessels’ long-distance communications and improve their domain awareness. Towed behind boats or ships, TALONS could carry intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and communications payloads of up to 150 pounds between 500 and 1,500 feet in altitude—many times higher than current ships’ masts—and greatly extend the equipment’s range and effectiveness.

DARPA has successfully tested a TALONS prototype that can be deployed by hand from smaller boats, or by mast from larger ships. Before open-water testing, TALONS’ rapid development began with land-based testing near Tucson, Arizona, in June 2014, followed by mock-up testing and measurement near Assateague Island National Seashore in Virginia in December of that year.

In the Chesapeake Bay near Baltimore, the TALONS team improved hand-deployment techniques for smaller boats and sent the system up to 500 feet in altitude, tuning and programming automatic launch-and-recovery and autopilot systems. The Virginia Beach demonstration occurred several miles offshore and used a mast-deployment technique that extended TALONS’ reach to 1,000 feet in altitude to display the system’s utility for larger ships.

 

[a_majoor]

Emerging C-RAM and counter drone systems roundup at NextBigFuture:

http://nextbigfuture.com/2015/10/antidrone-weapons-50mm-cannon-high.html

Antidrone weapons 50mm cannon, high energy lasers and radio frequency interference

Army engineers, who are seeking to adapt ongoing research to counter aerial systems that could threaten Soldiers, successfully shot down two aircraft as part of their final technology demonstration.

Although the research project began with the objective to counter rockets, artillery and mortars, the project scope was expanded to include threats from unmanned aerial threats, sometime called drones, whose use has expanded rapidly.

Although a missile-based C-RAM defense system has been selected as the technical approach for the Indirect Fire Protection Capability Increment 2 Intercept Program of Record, the gun alternative continued to mature as force-protection technologies for other potential applications.

During the final testing Aug. 19 at Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona, engineers shot down two Class 2 Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) using command guidance and command warhead detonation. The UAS was an Outlaw class aircraft, a product of Griffon Aerospace, and the intercept engagements occurred at over a kilometer range and about 1500 meters.

The first shoot-down at the kilometer range was a replication of the test performed April 22, in which the EAPS technology first successfully intercepted a loitering UAS. Some fire-control improvements were made after the April 22 tests, and were validated during the August 19 testing.

The second shoot down was executed at a 50 percent greater range and exceeded the EAPS demonstration objectives.

The Picatinny area-protection systems tracks both the incoming threat and interceptor, then computes an ideal trajectory correction for the interceptor to maximize probability of mission success. A thruster on the interceptor/projectile is used for course correction. The ground station uplinks the maneuver and detonation commands, while receiving downlinked assessment data.

The interceptor takes the commands and computes the roll orientation and time to execute thruster and warhead detonation. The warhead has a tantalum-tungsten alloy liner to form forward propelled penetrators for defeat of C-RAM targets, and steel body fragments to counter unmanned aerial systems. C-RAM stands for counter rockets, artillery and mortars.


Lasers in the 150kw to 300 kw power ranges appear likely to have managable power levels and useful lethality. Based on the military missions, lasers with 300 kw would be able to take out drones at ranges of at least tens of miles.


RF Jamming to freeze a drone and make it an easy target

The latest RF drone jamming system uses a quad-band radio frequency (RF) inhibitor/jammer that can disrupt all commercial drone licensed telemetry bands, and is effective against micro UAVs at up to 2 km (1.2 mi) and mini UAVs at longer ranges. Radio beams to freeze drones in midair by interfering with their control channels.

The AUDS made its public debut in May and has undergone testing in Europe and North America in different terrains ranging from open country to urban settings. A production version was showcased at the DSEI Show in London last month and is available from Blighter or Lighteye Systems in the US for £800,000 (US$1.2 million).

The fact that we had some of this capability in the 1980's and early 90's and then simply put it on the shelf and forgot about it is more than annoying, it shows how dangerously short sighted we are when it comes to defining capabilities.

 

[a_majoor]

A very interesting concept: drones made of materials that vanish after use. Delivery could be via an autogyro like device (thrown off the back of an airplane, it deploys blades which spin for lift and allow it to make a precision touchdown), but after you retrieve the package, there is no more delivery device to worry about, pack up or otherwise consider:

http://nextbigfuture.com/2015/10/darpa-making-drones-that-deliver-goods.html

DARPA making drones that deliver the goods and then vanish

It sounds like an engineering fantasy, or maybe an episode from Mission Impossible: A flock of small, single-use, unpowered delivery vehicles dropped from an aircraft, each of which literally vanishes after landing and delivering food or medical supplies to an isolated village during an epidemic or disaster. And it would be nothing more than a fantasy, were it not that the principle behind disappearing materials has already been proven.

Building on recent innovations in its two-year-old Vanishing Programmable Resources (VAPR) program, which has developed self-destructing electronic components, DARPA today launched ICARUS, a program driven by a vision of vanishing air vehicles that can make precise deliveries of critical supplies and then vaporize into thin air.

“Our partners in the VAPR program are developing a lot of structurally sound transient materials whose mechanical properties have exceeded our expectations,” said VAPR and ICARUS program manager Troy Olsson. Among the most eye-widening of these ephemeral materials so far have been small polymer panels that sublimate directly from a solid phase to a gas phase, and electronics-bearing glass strips with high-stress inner anatomies that can be readily triggered to shatter into ultra-fine particles after use. A goal of the VAPR program is electronics made of materials that can be made to vanish if they get left behind after battle, to prevent their retrieval by adversaries.

“With the progress made in VAPR, it became plausible to imagine building larger, more robust structures using these materials for an even wider array of applications. And that led to the question, ‘What sorts of things would be even more useful if they disappeared right after we used them?’” Olsson said. “In discussions with colleagues, we were able to identify a capability gap that we decided was worth trying to close.”

Progress in the development of vanishing polymers has opened pathways toward vanishing systems, such as air-dropped delivery vehicles.

From those deliberations emerged ICARUS, the mythology-alluding acronym for Inbound, Controlled, Air-Releasable, Unrecoverable Systems. Described today in a Broad Agency Announcement (DARPA-BAA-16-03, published on October 9, 2015, is available on FedBizOpps: http://go.usa.gov/3uJJd), the two-phase program is slated to last 26 months with total funding of about $8 million.

The millennia-old Icarus story ends badly when the protagonist, soaring with youthful abandon on wings of feather and wax, flies too close to the sun and then falls and drowns in the ocean as his wings disintegrate. DARPA’s new ICARUS program aims to mimic the material transience that led to Icarus’ demise, but leverages that capacity in scenarios with more uplifting endings.

In one program-driving scenario, troops are called upon to deliver food, perishable vaccines, insulin, and blood and plasma products to widespread, difficult-to-reach destinations in the aftermath of an earthquake or tsunami. The option to forget entirely about the remains of all those delivery vehicles once they have done their job would relieve response teams from the logistics task of packing and transporting the vehicles out of the affected region while essentially eliminating environmental impacts from the vehicles’ deployment.

In a military context, access to small, unmanned delivery systems whose structural and avionics components were made with transient materials could ease the provision of, say, water, batteries or emergency medical supplies without adding to a unit’s pack-out-burden.

“Vanishing delivery vehicles could extend military and civilian operational capabilities in extenuating circumstances where currently there is no means to provide additional support,” said Olsson, adding that he is optimistic the program will attract talented and created partners because it involves such interesting science and engineering. “Inventing transient materials, devising ways of scaling up their production, and combining those challenges with the hard control and aerodynamic requirements to reach the precision and soft-landing specs we need here makes for a challenging and compelling engineering problem.”

 

[a_majoor]

Massive networking in the real world. A few issues were noted, particularly the need for a better means of launching the drones (multiple launchers working in parallel would seem the best bet), and I think the means of communication has some issues with ECM and jamming in a real military context, but this is an interesting start:

http://nextbigfuture.com/2015/10/one-operator-controls-50-drones-at-one.html

One operator controls 50 drones at one time

A team at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, has succeeded in launching 50 drones that were all piloted by a single person.

The Zephyr drones they used are custom-made, largely from hobby parts, and cost about $2000 each. Getting so many into the air at once was challenging because they cannot be hand-launched like some smaller drones

The number of drones launched was more than just a stunt. Launching physically presents an opportunity to test out drone swarm behavior beyond simulations. There's no better way to find out how a drone swarm might act and control than to actually have a drone swarm.

The long-term goal is to have the swarms determine how to act on their own, and ARSENL reportedly intends to test this by eventually having a 50 vs. 50 drone swarm dogfight.

They only used one launcher. They can use multiple launchers. At present, the pre-flight safety checks limit launches to one every 30 seconds, but Jones thinks that they should be able to cut that to 10 seconds or less. He says that they may also build a second launcher, as there is no reason why the swarm has to be launched one at a time.

Once in the air, the drones communicated with each other via a system that uses high-powered Wi-Fi rather than conventional drone-communication systems, which would be swamped by the overlapping signals. The launch also gave an opportunity to test swarming algorithms with real drones rather than simulations.